"You'll make a note of this here also, doctor," says he, "and the boy'll
tell you how I saved his life, and were deposed for it too, and you
may lay to that. Doctor, when a man's steering as near the wind as
me--playing chuck-farthing with the last breath in his body, like--you
wouldn't think it too much, mayhap, to give him one good word? You'll
please bear in mind it's not my life only now--it's that boy's into the
bargain; and you'll speak me fair, doctor, and give me a bit o' hope to
go on, for the sake of mercy."

Silver was a changed man once he was out there and had his back to his
friends and the block house; his cheeks seemed to have fallen in, his
voice trembled; never was a soul more dead in earnest.

"Why, John, you're not afraid?" asked Dr. Livesey.

"Doctor, I'm no coward; no, not I--not SO much!" and he snapped his
fingers. "If I was I wouldn't say it. But I'll own up fairly, I've the
shakes upon me for the gallows. You're a good man and a true; I never
seen a better man! And you'll not forget what I done good, not any more
than you'll forget the bad, I know. And I step aside--see here--and
leave you and Jim alone. And you'll put that down for me too, for it's a
long stretch, is that!"

So saying, he stepped back a little way, till he was out of earshot, and
there sat down upon a tree-stump and began to whistle, spinning round
now and again upon his seat so as to command a sight, sometimes of me
and the doctor and sometimes of his unruly ruffians as they went to and
fro in the sand between the fire--which they were busy rekindling--and
the house, from which they brought forth pork and bread to make the